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Easy peasy chocolate cake

September 8th, 2010

This is the easiest recipe for chocolate cake and it leaves you with a fudgy, dense moist cake. The best bit? it uses vegetable oil for fat and cocoa instead of chocolate. Ok, so that doesn’t sound so appealing, but believe me you don’t notice and it does make it a very cheap cake to make. Everyone I have ever made this for loves it.

Smothered in a simple chocolate ganache, this makes the perfect birthday cake, or just a Monday afternoon cake.
Make sure the cake is completely cool before attempting to ice, too many times have I let impatience get the better of me and ended up fighting back the melting whipped cream (and the tears) as it cascades down the side of the cake. It’s perfect iced simply with chocolate ganache, but an easy grown up version would be to fill it with mascarpone and raspberries. Mascarpone, although a little more expensive than double cream, is great because all you need to do is stir it vigorously with a little icing sugar and maybe vanilla until it’s soft and billowing like a dense whipped cream. For a less grown up version, sprinkle the cake with hundreds and thousands before the icing sets.

To ice a cake successfully with minimum mess, try tearing 4 long strips of greaseproof paper and placing them on the edge of your plate. Top with the filled cake and do one layer of icing. The greasproof paper means you can be as messy as you want (within reason), you’re going for general coverage here, trying to make the surface as smooth as possible in a thin coat of icing. Let this chill in the fridge before doing the second layer. Once dry, pull the strips out from under the cake for a perfectly clean plate.

12 Responses to “Easy peasy chocolate cake”

This looks really good, and I quite like the idea of using vegetable oil rather than butter sometimes! There seems to be quite a lot of sugar – does the finished cake turn out quite sweet? Love the glossy finish too!

[...] well as being greedy I am also lazy and said cake had to be made from whatever I had in the house. This what rachel ate recipe fitted the bill and moreover, I can report, is the best chocolate cake [...]

I have made this cakes loads of times its brilliant i was looking for the ultimate delicious and easy cake and this fits the bill it even holds for a few days without drying out. I want to make a large one for my daughters 18th for approx 50 people how should i multiply it up to a large rectangular shape. im guessing 2 9×13inch tins? any help would be most appreciated. Thank you!

Hi Carol,
Hope this reply isn’t too late! I used this recipe for a wedding cake and I made 3 x the chocolate cake recipe in a 12in square tin which should serve 50 people easily.
You could probably make this is in a 9×13 tin, it would just be a bit higher. You could then cut it horizontally two or three times and fill with icing.
Rachel